Special stillborn certificates

Via Alternet:

I just read that there's a movement to award stillborn fetuses a special certificate, a certificate of stillborn birth instead of just a death certificate. It was started by

Joanne Cacciatore [who] delivered a stillborn fetus, a trauma that was compounded by the fact that she received a death certificate in the mail but no birth certificate -- a tangible memento she said would have helped her grieve.

Motivated by her loss, she mounted a grassroots campaign in her home state of Arizona to get the government to give parents who deliver stillborn fetuses the option of receiving a "certificate for stillborn birth" -- and in so doing unintentionally waded into the turbulent waters of abortion politics.

Although reproductive rights advocates say they sympathize with Cacciatore, they also fear her effort -- which has since ballooned into a nationwide campaign -- could aid anti-choice groups as they attempt to chip away at or eliminate abortion rights. "There's no question in my mind that the anti-abortion crowd will look for some way to use this," Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, has said. At issue is the question of "personhood," or when human life begins; the answer lies at the heart of the debate over abortion.

Read the rest of the article here.

theteach

Why the White House Keeps Hiding Behind General Petraeus

By Frank Rich, The New York Times. Posted July 30, 2007.

The White House has done everything possible to create the appearance that Gen. David Petraeus has all the responsibility for the occupation of Iraq -- but it's really an attempt to shield Bush from the failure in Iraq.

Read full post.

Ice: Currency of Last Resort

In 125 degree heat, ice in Iraq is an important commodity.

With electricity reaching most homes in Baghdad for just a couple of hours each day, ice has come to represent Iraq's steady descent into a more primitive era.

BAGHDAD, July 27 — Each day before the midsummer sun rises high enough to bake blood on concrete, Baghdad’s underclass lines up outside Dickensian ice factories. With electricity reaching most homes for just a couple of hours each day, the poor hand over soiled brown dinars for what has become a symbol of Iraq’s steady descent into a more primitive era and its broken covenant with leaders, domestic and foreign.

In a capital that was once the seat of the Islamic Caliphate and a center of Arab worldliness, ice is now a currency of last resort for the poor, subject to sectarian horrors and gangland rules.

Baghdad's sectarian compartmentalization of ice is as rigid for customers as for deliverymen.

via New York Times

Photos: Johan Spanner for The New York Times

_________________________________________________________________________

125 degree heat, no air-conditioning, trouble getting ice...Oh god, KILL ME NOW!

theteach

Happy 67th Birthday, Bugs Bunny!

Via Howstuffworks:

Bugs Bunny, that wascally wabbit, made his cartoon debut on July 27, 1940 in "A Wild Hare" with Elmer Fudd. That cartoon marked the first time the world ever heard,

"Eh, what's up, Doc?"

More than 175 animated shorts and a few movies later, Bugs Bunny still tops the charts when it comes to favorite cartoon characters.

A still from the 1943 Bugs Bunny cartoon "Falling Hare." The book title refers to WWII propoganda film "Victory Through Air Power" made by Disney in 1943.

theteach

Problem of Iraqi Refugees

Iraqi Refugees Burdening Neighbors

By DALE GAVLAK
Associated Press Writer

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Jordan and Syria complained Thursday they have been abandoned by the West to deal with the massive burden of more than 2 million Iraqi refugees who have fled the violence in their homeland.

Both countries issued urgent calls for help at a conference on Iraqi refugees, specifically expanded resettlement opportunities in the West and financial assistance.

Milad Atiya, the Syrian ambassador to Jordan and head of his country's delegation to the conference, said the international community "must be involved, especially the United States because its policy led to the plight the Iraqis are currently in and it bears responsibility."

Read the rest of the article here.

via Hickory Daily Record

theteach

Wordless Wednesday

theteach

Our modern-day immigrants

I have written in this blog before about e-mails people send around that are considered urban myths and, when sent and resent to hundreds of recipients, clog up the Internet unnecessarily. What follows is another legend (so says Snopes.com, the best known debunker of urban myths) that expresses the age-old, and UNTRUE adage that the immigrants of the past were hard-working, patriotic people as opposed to "modern-day" immigrants who want everything for nothing and don't want to learn English.

Here's the e-mail:

New Immigrants
From: "David LaBonte"

My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the OC Register which, of course, was not printed. So, I decided to "print" it myself by sending it out on the Internet.
Pass it along if you feel so inclined.
Dave LaBonte (signed)

Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in the Orange County Register:

Dear Editor:

So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry.

Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer.

Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.

They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture.

Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity. Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought along side men whose parents had come straight over from Germany , Italy , France and Japan None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan . They were defending the United States of America as one people. When we liberated France , no one in those villages were looking for the French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.

And here we are in 2006 with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.

And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty , it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just yet.
(signed) Rosemary LaBonte

P. S. Pass this on to everyone you know!!!
KEEP THIS LETTER MOVING!!
I hope this letter gets read by millions of people all across the nation!!

Ever onward!!

MAY GOD BLESS AMERICA

If you go to Snopes.com you'll find the e-mail and an explanation of its origins.

It's about time that the e-mail is stopped (I sent the Snopes link to the person who sent the e-mail to me) and that the idea that in the past immigrants were much more acceptable than the immigrants of today.

Our immigrants today are exactly the same as immigrants of the past. They are hard-working, patriotic people. They send their kids to public school where they learn English. They send money back to their families in other countries but so did Italian, Irish, German immigrants of decades ago.

What the Snopes.com article doesn't say is that MOST immigrants of yesterday AND today are glad to be in America. They change their names (first names) to recognizable, pronounceable American names. Their children often move out of the enclaves and assimilate into the greater society. Most are law-abiding and don't take advantage of welfare. MOST try very hard to speak English. Most are accommodating, friendly and eager to help.

Photo: The immigrants statue in Battery Park

theteach

Maybe Hillary?

This is for Noreen and Norma:



theteach

Wanting to vote for Hillary...

I've been thinking about Hillary Clinton and feeling bad because I don't want to vote for her. And after all she is the first woman candidate for President of these United States and, of course, if elected, our first woman President. And since I'm a woman I feel that I ought to be behind her.

You might ask why I don't want to vote for her. Well, I think she's cold, humorless, too careful, less than easy-going, will say what she thinks you want to hear. Of course she's on the right side of the fence for me and she'll have the best advisor any president has had since Robert Kennedy. ;)

Do any of you out there feel the same as I do?

Well, here's what I've done to change my opinion, my feelings about her. I watched Primary Colors and kept my eye on Emma Thompson who plays Hillary in the film.

Just look at that photo above from the film and you can see what I mean. Emma looks so soft and sweet. Awww, don't get mad at me because I like soft and sweet in a woman... And in the photo below...no pants suit.

In the film when Hillary/Emma finds out that Bill/John is fooling around she breaks down and sobs inconsolably. It's a wonderful scene...she really is broken by his infidelity.

I think I needed a little bit of that from Hillary instead of that stoic, unperturbed face.

I really do think Hillary would do a good job as president, but I also like Barack Obama and think he would do a good job.

So I'm going to think of Emma in Primary Colors as we proceed toward 2008.

Oh Hillary, ditch the pants suit...


theteach

Bush hands over government to Cheney...

Bush Colonoscopy Puts Cheney In Charge »

---

AP | Deb Riechmann | July 20, 2007 12:42 PM

WASHINGTON - President Bush will undergo a routine colonoscopy Saturday and temporarily hand presidential powers over to Vice President Dick Cheney, White House press secretary Tony Snow said.

Snow told reporters Friday that Bush will have the procedure done at his Camp David, Md., mountaintop retreat.

___________________________________________________________________

No, No, Mr. Bush, don't you realize what you're doing? Don't give over the government to Cheney!

Mr. Bush, good luck and up yours!

via Huffington Post

theteach

World War I Recruitment Posters

I was reading an article in the New York Times about the hidden truths in photos and came across this haunting photo of a World War I recruitment poster:
At first I didn't know what I was looking at, but the caption that accompanied the photo said:

“ENLIST” was a WWI Recruitment poster designed by Fred Spears. Spears’ design was inspired by a news report from Cork, Ireland, that described, among the recovered bodies from the Lusitania, “a mother with a three-month-old child clasped tightly in her arms. Her face wears a half smile. Her baby’s head rests against her breast. No one has tried to separate them.”

RMS Lusitania was a British luxury ocean liner owned by the Cunard Steamship Line Shipping Company. Christened and launched on Thursday, June 7, 1906, Lusitania met a tragic end as a casualty of the first World War when she was torpedoed by the German submarine, U-20, on May 7, 1915. The great ship sank in just 18 minutes, eight miles (15km) off of the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, killing 1,198 of the 1,959 people aboard. The sinking turned sentiments against Germany. (Wikipedia)

Impressed by the imagination and beauty of the poster I went looking for additional recruitment posters. Here are some of the more artistic that I found:

That Liberty Shall Not Perish From The Earth
1918
Joseph Pennell (1857-1926), U.S.A.

If Ye Break Faith- We Shall Not Sleep
1918
Frank Lucien Nicolet (1887-?), Canada

(World War I -US) Red Cross Christmas Roll Call December 16th to 23d. Where Columbia sets her name let every one of you follow her. Signed in the plate K. H. Blashfield lower center. Mounted on linen. Very nice condition. Approx. 18.75"w x 28"h. (FF2) (Stock number 003WWI-0503P) $150.00 SOLD

This last poster comes from the-forum online-gallery which sells the posters. These posters were also called Propaganda posters.

So what is this we are looking at?
Beauty out of horror and violence.

theteach

McCain won't discuss it anymore...

July 18, 2007

McCain snaps: ‘Finished’ discussing campaign

A frustrated McCain said Wednesday he was done discussing his campaign woes. WASHINGTON (CNN) — A frustrated Sen. John McCain snapped Wednesday when asked by CNN about his troubled presidential campaign and vowed he would no longer answer questions on that topic. “I’m not going to talk about my campaign anymore,” McCain said in a sharp tone. “I’m finished with talking about it. I’ve talked about it for two weeks. I will not discuss it or any aspect of it. Thank you.”


via CNN
______________________________________

I think it's over for McCain. Something has gone wrong for him and I don't know what it is. Something's been wrong for months now. Psychological problems, maybe... Effects from his time spent as a POW during the Vietnam War, maybe... I do feel for the guy. He's a great, brave soldier, but he wouldn't make a good president. We can't stomach another hawk.

theteach

Six medical workers have death sentences revoked

Libya revokes HIV death sentences

The imprisonment of the medics has caused an international outcry

Death sentences on six foreign medics convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV have been commuted to life in prison by Libya's top legal body.

The High Judicial Council ruling came after the families of the 438 children agreed a compensation deal reportedly worth $1m (£500,000) per child.

Talks are expected to open on Wednesday on the transfer of the six to Bulgaria.

The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who were convicted in 2004, maintain their innocence.

via BBC

See earlier post

theteach

Cheney pushing Bush on Iran...

According to the Guardian UK:

The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned.

The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: "Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo."

Read rest of article here.

_____________________________________________________________

OMG! And it's Dick Cheney who's in favor of "upping the threat of military action" against Iran.

theteach

Courtney posted this on Feministing:

July 14, 2007

Network Hypocrisy Over Condom Ads

FOX and CBS have both recently refused to air ads for condoms that emphasize their use as a birth control method. When interviewed by the New York Times, a FOX rep said, that the decision was based on their policy that condom ads "must stress health-related issues rather than the prevention of pregnancy." In other words, it is okay to educate consumers about STDs, but empowering them to make reproductive choices is beyond the purview of two of our nation's most sex-saturated networks. Oh my. Check out my full take on this disappointment at Alternet. Posted by Courtney at 11:07 PM |

theteach

North Korea Shuts Down Its Nuclear Reactor

North Korean Reactor Is Shut, U.N. Confirms

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Published: July 16, 2007

SEOUL, South Korea, July 16 — Inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency have confirmed that North Korea has shut down its weapons-making nuclear reactor, the agency said today.

The reactor was shut down in return for an initial shipment of 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil.

But the Communist North warned the United States that the real bargaining for its nuclear disarmament has only just begun.

North Korea told the United States over the weekend that it had shut down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and had readmitted a permanent international inspection team.

Read the rest of the article here.

Additional articles:

U.S.: North Korea Claims Reactor shutdown (Breitbart.com)

In North Korea, 2002 All Over Again (New York Times)

theteach

Bush as Jesus Christ

Found this shot on Reuters:

President Bush speaks about the economy in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, July 11, 2007.
REUTERS/Jason Reed

I call it "Bush as Jesus Christ." You can't tell me the photographer and Reuters service didn't see the obvious suggestion.

What the heck were they thinking?

theteach

Bernstein understands Hillary

From a New York Times review:

There are two new books about Hillary out there for our consideration:

In the last month and a half, three extremely well-respected journalists have come out with two books that attempt to divine who the real Hillary might be. One, Carl Bernstein’s “Woman in Charge,” is plainly sympathetic, while the other, Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr.’s “Her Way,” is more severe. (If there’s any doubt as to which is which, just consult the two book covers — Gerth and Van Natta’s shows Hillary in, quite literally, a much harsher light.)

The book covers are below:








































Both go off the rails at the moments their grand unified theories can’t quite accommodate the facts, and both practically narcotize readers when they descend into rote recapitulations of the Clinton scandals.

But it’s Bernstein who ultimately makes the sharper, more lasting impression, despite the soft-focus portrait of the junior senator from New York on his cover. While he plows some of the same emotional terrain as previous Hillary biographers — notably Gail Sheehy in “Hillary’s Choice” — his book holds together as a piece of writing, and he keeps the psychobabble to a merciful minimum.

Bernstein is best known for his coverage of Watergate with Bob Woodward six administrations ago.

But his book suggests that it isn’t his executive-scandal bona fides that make him a qualified Hillary biographer; it’s his bona fides as a lousy husband.

Like Bill Clinton, Bernstein carried on a very public affair while married to a formidable, high-profile woman and one of the perverse strengths of his book is his intuitive understanding — a sinner’s lament, really — of what happens to a proud woman when she’s intimately betrayed and publicly humiliated.

The blockbuster news item to come out of Bernstein’s book was that Hillary contemplated running for governor of Arkansas in 1989, when she discovered her husband was thinking about abandoning his post and his family for another woman.

Read the rest of the article by Jennifer Senior.

theteach

Any progress in Iraq?

Today Bush dragged out that old saw (saying) in his news conference where he was supposed to report on his Iraq Benchmark Assessment Report. I listened on NPR (WNYC) and caught this quote:

"Their ambition is to continue to hurt the American people. My attitude is: We ought to defeat them there so we don't have to face them here..."

I did a Google search on that phrase just to see how many times Bush & Co. have reiterated that phrase. I got 1 million 700 thousand hits!

And still the American people overwhelmingly want us out of Iraq...

We're not listening, Mr. Bush. We don't believe you.

Immediate American troop pullout?

What will happen in Iraq if American troops are pulled out immediately? Austin Bay, who has spent a bit of time in combat zones, envisions seven potential scenarios. (via Opinionator)

1. Three countries -- Kurdistan, a Shia state, Sunni state.

2. Regional Shia-Sunni war.

3. Turkey expands.

4. Shia dictatorship.

5. Chaos.

6. Gang-up -- Shias and Kurds gang-up against the Sunnis.

7. Surprise --The Iraqi center holds.

Read the entire post on Austin Bay blog.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What about bringing in lots and lots of UN peacekeepers?

theteach

Kerik scares us further...

Damn, Bernie Kerik is being interviewed right now by Fox News about Chertoff's "gut feeling" about terrorist attacks. And he's saying we should be at our highest alerts because an attack is coming... That's right scare us further...

"New York City is a definite, continued target." He was introduced by Fox as their Homeland Security consultant. Oh Jeez.

Ya know, it's the blind leading the blind, ah, I mean, the stupid leading the stupid.

theteach

Bush's Die Hard

Some say that this most recent Die Hard movie is George W's Die Hard movie. According to Alternet (via The Huffington Post) since Ronald Reagan there has been a Die Hard movie for every administration since.

I never noticed, but this movie certainly could be George's movie because it's filled with violence and chaos and a state of utter confusion and disorder.

According to Lawrence Levi who wrote the article:

It scared me because it gave a glimpse of an America in which pandemonium rules. Between kick-ass action beats, when McClane and his young hacker sidekick make their way to a D.C. police station after all the traffic lights and phones have gone out, and the stock market has collapsed and every city's transportation system has shut down, we get a brief, slo-mo sense of what true chaos feels like -- it's post-Katrina New Orleans on a national scale.

Even scarier, the government is totally unprepared. ("It took FEMA five days to get water to the Superdome," the hacker reminds us.) That's what makes this George W.'s Die Hard: it's explicitly Homeland Security's incompetence and indifference that make the nation so defenseless. In fact, the terrorist mastermind is a former government security expert who wants to prove the network's vulnerability. So, naturally, a bald, fifty-something Luddite cop is America's only hope. But if Bruce Willis won't come to our rescue in real life, who will?

____________________________________________________________________
So I certainly agree with Mr. Levi but I can't let this go without mentioning... Bruce Willis still has it, doesn't he? I'll take "a bald, fifty-something Luddite cop" anyday. :-)

theteach

Pope Calls for Old Latin Mass

According to the Washington Post, the Pope is poised to revive the traditional Latin Mass. The Tridentine Mass, as it's called, was replaced in the 1960s under the ecumenical Pope John XXIII.

It was replaced by a mass in the language in which the mass was said. At the time masses utilizing guitars and secular songs became popular.

"To some Catholics, the return of the old Latin Mass is symbolic of a conservative turn away from what they view as the "excesses" that followed the Second Vatican Council, said the Rev. Thomas J. Scirghi, who teaches liturgical theology at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif."

Bishop Luca Brandolini, a member of the liturgy commission of the Italian bishops' conference, mourns the Latin decree and believes it undermines all the positive changes brought about in the Church since the Council.

Some Jewish leaders sharply criticize the decree, which revives a passage from the old Latin prayer book for Good Friday calling for Jews to be converted. Others, however, are taking a more measured tone and calling for clarification. (Washington Post)

French Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, who warned last year against meeting traditionalists' demands for the Latin mass, said on Saturday the prayer could be changed if it caused difficulties with Jews.
__________________________________________________________________
The return to the Latin Mass is giving in to a very small group of traditionalists who have been lobbying the Pope for a long time. This move to the right is appalling...

theteach

HIV-Positive Toddler Banned From Pool

ABC News

Posted: 2007-07-09 07:20:50

(July 8) - A couple says their vacation was ruined when an RV park owner told them they weren't welcome after discovering their 2-year-old foster son had the HIV virus.

Last week, Dick and Silvia Glover went to the Wales West RV Park in Silver Hill, Ala., with their foster son Caleb. When the boy was banned from using the pool and showers, the Glovers said they were offered an uncomfortable and painful choice: They could either keep Caleb out of the water or leave.

"We weren't sure if somebody could get the virus if the child upchucked on them or from blood or what," said Ken Zadnichek, the park's owner. "We didn't know what the risk was. That's why we asked for something from their doctor or the county health department."

Dick Glover said the request for a doctor's note made it clear Caleb was unwelcome.

The video below tells the whole sad story. It's important to note that you cannot get HIV from casual contact. Certainly not from a pool or shower.

theteach

Fourth of July

I won't be posting to this blog for a couple of days. I'll be back July 9th.

Happy Fourth!!

I wish for an end to the war
and peace for the world
this 4th day of July
2007

theteach

Wife Gets Green Card

Would like your opinion on this...

Missing Soldier's Wife Gets Green Card

AP

Posted: 2007-07-02 10:22:17

BOSTON (July 1) - A woman whose soldier husband is missing in Iraq has gotten her green card after authorities threatened to deport her for entering the U.S. illegally.

"Her immigration problems have been solved in their entirety and now her focus is completely dedicated to her hope and desire that she's going to see her husband again," Kolken said.

Army Spec. Alex Jimenez, of Lawrence, Mass., has been missing since his unit was attacked in Iraq on May 12.

His wife illegally entered the U.S. from the Dominican Republic in June 2001, paying $500 to a smuggler and walking three days from Mexico to California. The couple were married in 2004.
__________________________________________________________________

Read the full article and then tell me in the comments what you think... I am completely in sympathy with her.

Photo: Army Spc. Alex R. Jimenez has been missing since a May 12 ambush in Iraq. His wife, who entered the U.S. illegally, was threatened with deportation.

Have a couple of laughs!

Since it's the weekend and I don't want to work too hard I thought I'd treat you to

Pat Robertson's Weather Predictions. (Why is it I don't think this is entirely a joke?)


Giuliani: Obama Victory Would Lead to "Negrofication" of Country


President Bush Loses Risk Game to Twelve Year-Old Boy, Chimpanzee


all via News Mutiny